We have in the present Taisho canon several S~ttras with titles,as well as content, referring to Maitreya.2 Within the vast "Maitreyagenre" five sutras focus on Maitreya's future buddhahood,its prerequisites and setting. The editors of the Taisho editionarranged these texts one after the other (no. 453-457) in volumefourteen. The first text is called the "Slitra on Maitreya's comingdown to birth," Mile xiasheng jing 5i./itjff1:.*~. The following twoscriptures are both called: the "Siltra on Maitreya's coming downto birth and buddhahood," Mile xiasheng chengfo jing 5i1f.Jff1:.pj(;1!1M~. These are followed by the "Siltra on Maitreya's great buddhahood,"Mile dachengfo jing 5i~*pj(;1!1M~, and the "Siltra on thetime of Maitreya's arrival," Mile laishi jing 5i~*a~*~. FurtherMaitreya texts that mention Maitreya's future buddhahood focus onother issues. This is the case with the chapter dedicated to Maitreyain the "Siltra of the Wise and the Fool," Xianyu jing '~':J~',*~,3 theMaitreyaparip[cchii, Mile pusa suo wen benyuan jing 5i~i?f]i}imFr:l~*m*~,4 and the "Siltra on Maitreya's Birth in the Tu~ita heaven,"Guan Mile pusa shangsheng Doushuai-tian jing ilI.5i./itjJi?f]i}il::.1:.g'la$3'::*~). 5Of these eight texts no. 453 and no. 349 are attributed to Dharmarak~a / Zhu Fahu ~¥:t~, one of the best known early translatorsof Buddhist texts into Chinese. He worked in China between 265and 313 AD. Thus these two sutras represent the supposedly oldestextant Maitreya sutra translations.

from: Reopening the Maitreya-filesTwo almost identical early Maitreya satratranslations in the Chinese Canon: Wrongattributions and text-historical entanglements'Elsa I. Legittimo